Normative design using inductive learning

In this paper we propose a use-case-driven iterative design methodology for normative frameworks, also called virtual institutions, which are used to govern open systems. Our computational model represents the normative framework as a logic program under answer set semantics (ASP). By means of an inductive logic programming approach, implemented using ASP, it is possible to synthesise new rules and revise the existing ones. The learning mechanism is guided by the designer who describes the desired properties of the framework through use cases, comprising (i) event traces that capture possible scenarios, and (ii) a state that describes the desired outcome. The learning process then proposes additional rules, or changes to current rules, to satisfy the constraints expressed in the use cases. Thus, the contribution of this paper is a process for the elaboration and revision of a normative framework by means of a semi-automatic and iterative process driven from specifications of (un)desirable behaviour. The process integrates a novel and general methodology for theory revision based on ASP.Comment: Theory and Practice of Logic Programming, 27th Int'l. Conference on Logic Programming (ICLP'11) Special Issue, volume 11, issue 4-5, 201

LOG-IDEAH:ASP for architectonic asset preservation

To preserve our cultural heritage, it is important to preserve our architectonic assets, comprising buildings, their decorations and the spaces they encompass. In some geographical areas, occasional natural disasters, specifically earthquakes, damage these cultural assets. Perpetuate is a European Union funded project aimed at establishing a methodology for the classification of the damage to these buildings, expressed as "collapse mechanisms". Structural engineering research has identified 17 different collapse mechanisms for masonry buildings damaged by earthquakes. Following established structural engineering practice, paper-based decisions trees have been specified to encode the recognition process for each of the various collapse mechanisms. In this paper, we report on how answer set programming has been applied to the construction of a machineprocessable representation of these collapse mechanisms as an alternative for these decision-trees and their subsequent verification and application to building records from L'Aquila, Algiers and Rhodes. As a result, we advocate that structural engineers do not require the time-consuming and error-prone method of decisions trees, but can instead specify the properties of collapse mechanisms directly as an answer set program. © Viviana Novelli, Marina De Vos, Julian Padget, and Dina D'Ayala

ASP for architectonic asset preservation

To preserve our cultural heritage, it is important to preserve our architectonic assets, comprising buildings, their decorations and the spaces they encompass. In some geographical areas, occasional natural disasters, specifically earthquakes, damage these cultural assets. Perpetuate is a European Union funded project aimed at establishing a methodology for the classification of the damage to these buildings, expressed as "collapse mechanisms". Structural engineering research has identified 17 different collapse mechanisms for masonry buildings damaged by earthquakes. Following established structural engineering practice, paper-based decisions trees have been specified to encode the recognition process for each of the various collapse mechanisms. In this paper, we report on how answer set programming has been applied to the construction of a machine-processable representation of these collapse mechanisms as an alternative for these decision-trees and their subsequent verification and application to building records from L'Aquila, Algiers and Rhodes. As a result, we advocate that structural engineers do not require the time-consuming and error-prone method of decisions trees, but can instead specify the properties of collapse mechanisms directly as an answer set program

A process for developing a sustainable and scalable approach to community engagement : community dialogue approach for addressing the drivers of antibiotic resistance in Bangladesh

BACKGROUND: Community engagement approaches that have impacted on health outcomes are often time intensive, small-scale and require high levels of financial and human resources. They can be difficult to sustain and scale-up in low resource settings. Given the reach of health services into communities in low income countries, the health system provides a valuable and potentially sustainable entry point that would allow for scale-up of community engagement interventions. This study explores the process of developing an embedded approach to community engagement taking the global challenge of antibiotic resistance as an example. METHODS: The intervention was developed using a sequential mixed methods study design. This consisted of: exploring the evidence base through an umbrella review, and identifying key international standards on the appropriate use of antibiotics; undertaking detailed formative research through a) a qualitative study to explore the most appropriate mechanisms through which to embed the intervention within the existing health system and community infrastructure, and to understand patterns of knowledge, attitudes and practice regarding antibiotics and antibiotic resistance; and b) a household survey - which drew on the qualitative findings - to quantify knowledge, and reported attitudes and practice regarding antibiotics and antibiotic resistance within the target population; and c) drawing on appropriate theories regarding change mechanisms and experience of implementing community engagement interventions to co-produce the intervention processes and materials with key stakeholders at policy, health system and community level. RESULTS: A community engagement intervention was co-produced and was explicitly designed to link into existing health system and community structures and be appropriate for the cultural context, and therefore have the potential to be implemented at scale. We anticipate that taking this approach increases local ownership, as well as the likelihood that the intervention will be sustainable and scalable. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the value of ensuring that a range of stakeholders co-produce the intervention, and ensuring that the intervention is designed to be appropriate for the health system, community and cultural context

Picturing the nation : The Celtic periphery as discursive other in the archaeological displays of the museum of Scotland

Using the archaeological displays at the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, this paper examines the exhibition as a site of identity creation through the negotiations between categories of same and Other. Through an analysis of the poetics of display, the paper argues that the exhibition constructs a particular relationship between the Celtic Fringe and Scottish National identity that draws upon the historical discourses of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland as a place and a time \u27apart\u27. This will be shown to have implications for the display of archaeological material in museums but also for contemporary understandings of Scottish National identity. <br /

Ethos of Ambiguity: Artist Teachers and the Transparency Exclusion Paradox

Addressing changes in conditions for practitioners that can be related to education policy in England and Wales since 2010, this article presents issues faced by teachers of art and design and theorises responses in practice. The current insistence on transparency in education emerges through policy that audits performativity, in a limiting skills bank. Practitioners in Art and Design are particularly affected by what I term ‘the transparency-exclusion paradox’, as they battle to maintain the subject area and are ‘othered’ by the EBacc and Progress 8. I will discuss an emergent ‘ethos of ambiguity’ among artist-teachers and contemporary artists, with a theoretical basis informed by Beauvoir and Foucault. Empirical data from research participants will be evidenced, to explore strategies of response in inclusive social practice. This article adds to literature that considers the effects of policy in implementation and it contributes to research on creative expressions of ambiguity in the arts